Passing the Port: Douro Boys and classy table wines

The Douro Boys are a group of 5 grower-winemakers who clubbed together in 2003 to promote the wines of the Douro valley, upriver of Porto in Northern Portugal. Though this promotional intent does include highlighting the Port wines that the Douro is famous for, their efforts have a bigger focus on the unfortified, dry red, and more recently white, table wines that the Douro also produces. In essence, they’re saying that the Douro has passed the Port.

Since 1990, when João Nicolau de Almeida of the Ramos Pinto Port house launched table wines under the Duas Quintas label, Douro red and white wines have built in volume, in producer know-how, and ultimately in reputation and consumer interest.

Moreover, table wines have provided an important layer of economic value to a region whose core Port wines have seen declines in total sales volumes over recent decades, as consumer tastes have gravitated to lighter-alcohol and drier wines.

In many ways, table wines provide much needed cash-flow for the Port producers to invest in the costly vineyards and viticulture, winery facilities and labour, not only to make better table wines, but also to make ever-better Port wines. In fact, as João Nicolau de Almeida explained to me in 2014, table wine gave a use for grapes that had been grown, but which fell outside the Port wine beneficio – the annual Port production limits, set by regulatory body, the IDVP.

But back to the Douro Boys.

Part of their efforts are doing joint dinners and events – one of which I attended at 67 Pall Mall in March 2018. Another part is organising education trips to the Douro for journalists and sommeliers. I was kindly invited to join a trip for sommeliers in (including Terry Kandylis, Head Sommelier at 67 Pall Mall and all-round good lad), in May.

This was a great opportunity to re-visit a region as absolutely stunning as the Douro valley – it is almost unmatched by any other wine region in beauty – and to explore how the red and especially white table wines are evolving, keep a finger on the pulse of Port wine development. And of course get to know the 5 Douro Boys estates more deeply: Quinta do Vallado, Quinta do Crasto, Niepoort(at Quinta de Nápoles), Quinta Vale Dona Maria (often shortened to Quinta Vale D. Maria) and Quinta do Vale Meão.

Over 3 days, we visited each estate. This gave an opportunity for representatives of each estate to give an overview of their estate, vineyards, winemaking and so on. But this also included a sequence of 5 tastings of with 2 wines per estate.

Each tasting was designed to explore specific issues or aspects of the Douro and its wines. All tasting notes below are by day and theme, rather than by estate. Additional wines were then served with lunch or dinner on each day, typically from the individual estate hosting. I have also woven in the additional tasting notes from the March 67 Pall Mall dinner, marked as such.

Summary

General observations

Great table wines: Douro wines can achieve excellence in both red and white, even if there is plenty more to go as winemakers learn their craft and build consistency

Stylistic variations: within the Douro Boys (and by extension, the region at large) a range of styles exists from riper to earlier-picked; more oak to less; more extraction to more suppleness. These styles are also evolving. This means there will be a style for most palates, though does also mean greater consumer complexity

Regions don’t necessarily translate to styles: climate broadly progresses from rainier / cooler to hotter / drier, from western Baixo Corgo to Cima Corgo to eastern Douro Superior. However, the 45,000Ha over the twists and turns of the myriad, steep-sided valleys generate huge variations in aspect and altitude (80-800m) that can reverse expected styles. Specific site and its varieties matter as much or more

Block-planting vs inter-planted: different schools of thought exist and this remains an open debate. For example, Vale Meão favours block-planting of single varieties for control while Dirk Niepoort believes that mixed planting is proven by history. Vale D. Maria did block-plant, but now believe this was a mistake, and is switching to mixed plantings for new sites

Earlier picking: broadly, lighter styles with brighter acidity and lower ABV are coming through, with somewhat earlier picking across the board. This is particularly true for Dirk Niepoort’s wines, but not exclusively

Return to lagares: not only for Port winemaking but for aspects of, if not all of, quality red winemaking, lagares are making a comeback, with many plans to install new granite lagares

Less new oak and bigger barrels: consistently across the Douro Boys, the broadly-Global trend to restraining the flavour influence of oak is in evidence on both reds and especially white table wines

2015 Vintage Port and 2016 vs. 2017: the Douro Boys (and others) believe that 2015 is a classic Port Vintage and should have been declared as such by the big Port houses. There is broad agreement that the 2016 is high quality, though perhaps for earlier drinking than 2011…but that 2017 looks very good, so will the big houses declare 2017 back to back with 2016. Dirk Niepoort intends to declare 2017 (and disagrees on 2016 as a great vintage…)

Tasting theme conclusions (with links to skip to each main section):

Individual varieties and blends: Touriga Nacional is a fine, standalone grape variety. Sousão is interesting, though its rustic tannins suggest to me that it is better as a blend component, as is generally the case for Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo). The red blends are great though, and show commonality

Port wines: when Port is great, it is very hard to beat for ageworthiness and for value-for-money – including aged Tawnies / Colheitas, and aged White Ports, not just Vintage

Freshness and acidity: earlier-picking, plus site and varietal selections for whites and reds, means pH levels can be surprisingly low (pH 3.15) and acidity high (7+ g/L TA), giving more juicy or mouthwatering freshness than might be expected. Further, avoidance of baked fruit means fruit character can also be fresher

Long-living Douro reds: 2011 is a very fine vintage for table reds as well as Port wines. Moreover, wines of a decade and more bottle age showed how these can develop well. Touriga Nacional again showed longevity as did the old vine blends

Douro Boys estates thoughts:

Quinta do Vallado: Baixo Corgo. Aiming high, with a fine boutique hotel and restaurant, and good branding. But fine wines too. The 2012 Quinta do Vallado Branco was particularly memorable

Quinta do Crasto: Cima Corgo North bank. Lovely wines, both white and red, derived from significant and thoughtful vineyard investment. I was already a fan of the purity and clarity of their varietal Touriga Nacional, and the 2015 is another classy one. Their old vines, single vineyard Maria Teresa is pretty special as well

Niepoort: Cima Corgo South bank, opposite Crasto. Stylistically distinct, driven by Dirk’s strong desire for freshness, lower alcohol and early picking, coupled with older oak use. Willing to experiment, to disagree and to upset his own status quo, if it is no longer valid. Excellent Ports. And an excellent winery dog, Batuta

Quinta Vale D. Maria: Rio Torto, Cima Corgo. Single vineyard expressions reflect their interest in the vineyard over variety, and it shows through in the resulting quality

Quinta do Vale Meão: Douro Superior. Generally higher ripeness levels, reflecting the Superior, but again, location can be confounded by site and variety selection. The 2011 Quinta do Vale Meão tinto has quite rightly been lauded, as it is a fine, complex wine – albeit at prices now driven to 3 figures by a 4th in the Wine Spectator Global ranking

Day 1: Quinta do Vale Meão: Individual varieties and their role in Douro blends

The gates of Quinta do Vale Meão, showing an older spelling of its name

We were hosted by Luisa, from the owning Olazabal family, who runs sales. Luisa’s brother Xito makes the Vale Meão wine, while her father, Francisco (Vito), was a senior manager at Ferreira, the Port house that the family ultimately bought the estate from in 1994. Joana Pinhão, one of the winemakers at Quinta Vale D. Maria also joined us for the tasting. At the 67 Pall Mall dinner, it was Vito who presented the wines.

Quinta do Vale Meão was founded in 1877 by Port wine doyenne, Dona Antónia Ferreira of the eponymous Port house. Given its location on a large bend in the river, in the Douro Superior in the Vila Nova de Foz Côa municipality – then well beyond the Pinhão railhead – it was a remarkably foresighted move. The family are direct descendants of Dona Antónia have been involved with the estate for 125 years.

Looking across the wide Douro meander to Vale Meão’s vineyards

The estate was built from scratch, with the first vines planted in 1888 in mixed-plot field blends. However, most of the Quinta was replanted in the 1970s by Vito, and they moved towards block-planting of selected varieties, given that advances in viticulture meant that the diseases and challenges that originally led to mixed planting could now be overcome or managed.

At the time, early results of grape variety vineyard trials across the Douro, which were completed in the 1980s, were available and Vito focused on those varieties showing promise. This including identifying that Touriga Nacional could mature even under extremes of heat and drought, both of which are absolutely true of the Douro Superior. They now have 15 block-planted varieties that are vinified separately, then blended as needed.

That process of variety evaluation and selection has continued as they have learned more. For example, Xito, who hates Tinta Amarela, has just pulled up their plot of it to be replaced with other, preferred varieties.

Like most of the Douro Boys, the Quinta stopped selling grapes to Port houses and began bottling their own table wines in the 1990s – 1999 in the case of Vale Meão. These began with the two blends – the top Quinta do Vale Meão bottling and a second wine, Meandro.

The first unfortified, table wine in the region came from here – Barca Velha in 1952. Luisa’s grandfather was on Ferreira’s winemaking team. He had travelled extensively including studying in Bordeaux and elsewhere, saw the potential for the Douro to make unfortified wines and suggested the concept to the Ferreira Board.

This was then made from Vale Meão fruit plus and another, higher altitude quinta to give acidity. Temperature control was seen as key by his winemaking consultants, but this was hard to do at the time, without electricity, so he had to bring large blocks of ice 150+km from the Porto docks to do that. They still have a winery named Barca Velha at the other end of the Quinta.

Given the table winemaking heritage, as table wines grew during the 1990s, it was a logical move for Vale Meão to launch their own.

100Ha are planted out of the estate’s 300Ha, all of which are red. White varieties are new to the company, as of 2013, when they acquired a different, nearby quinta that provides Rabigato, while Arinto is bought-in to complete their white blend. Some grapes are still sold to Port producers, but this proportion is reducing, while grapes are no longer sold to Sogrape’s Casa Ferrerinha for Barca Velha.

Granite lagares are still used, but with a combination of foot-treading initially, followed by a robo-lagar treader for Port wines. When the estate was bought, the main winery was in good repair, but the lagares were not being used at the time, so needed restoration and they reduced the sizes of each to get smaller vinifications.

Robotic foot-treading mechanism over Vale Meão’s granite lagar

Unfortified wines are made in stainless steel, temperature-controlled vats, with cool fermentation at around 24°C for the reds. Fruit is picked in the early morning or late evening, then a cold maceration takes place first for 5 hours. Peristaltic pumps are used for gentle pumpovers and moderate extraction during fermentation. Lagares are not used as they believe these would risk higher extraction and temperature control is harder.

White unfortified wines are relatively new to the Quinta, following the 2013 acquisition. They press directly to stainless steel vats and cool-ferment.

Quinta do Crasto Touriga Nacional 2015 (17.5+ / 20)100% Touriga Nacional, selection of best grapes and barrels from across the Quinta, but all on schist soils. Cima Corgo fruit. 14% ABV. Foot-trodden in lagares, then finishes fermentation in stainless steel. 20 months in a mix of new and older oak. Just announced as Best Single Varietal in Portugal, in a Portuguese national competition. Despite being such a warm year, acidities were relatively high across the region.
A: Saturated black-purple with a narrow rim
N: Lifted, powerful violet scent, with vanilla-mint oak tones. Slightly jammy, polished blackberry fruit
P: Rich, dense, blackberry fruit, then spice, violets and firm, fine tannins. Bright acidity. Juicy orange peel tones. Schisty mineral and spiced mid-palate. Long, tight finish

Quinta do Vale Meão Quinta do Vale Meão Douro Tinto 2010 (17+ / 20)Tasted at 67 Pall Mall. Quinta do Vale Meão main wine comes from similar vineyards similar each year. 50% Touriga Nacional, 30% Touriga Franca, with the balance Tinta Roriz, then other varieties. Destemmed and crushed, then foot-trodden for 4-6 hours. Rack to wooden vats to complete fermentation and a few days post-fermentation maceration. 14-16 months in barriques. Looking to show a sense of the place the grapes come from.A: Mid-deep ruby-purpleN: Torrified cedar oak. Vanilla. Ripe blackberry and raspberry. Smoky, flinty tones. Some violets, but not marked. Schisty minerality. Hints of stems? No, tobacco developmentP: Savoury, stony / smoky minerality. Slightly stewed black fruit. Early tones of fresh leather. Some dried fruit and dark chocolate. Moderate, very fine-grained tannins. Warming finish, but with salinity and stoniness and well-integrated. Long

Dinner wines at Quinta de Nápoles with Dirk van der Niepoort

Some of the older, unique and interesting Niepoort wines Dirk opened at dinner, at our request

Niepoort 20 Year old Tawny Port NV (18 / 20)Bottled in 1960s, so has developed without the concentration that takes place in barrel, and has developed with bottle character – ‘bottle sickness’ as Dirk refers to it.
A: Mid tawny-amber; olive rim tones
N: Mint lift. Caramel, rancio, old tobacco, mahogany, subtle fudge and hazelnut. Very mellow. Dried stone fruit
P: Medium sweetness. Very mellow and integral hazelnut and praline, milk chocolate, subtle spice. Caramel. Long and creamy, toffee finish

Niepoort Very Dry White Port NV (17 / 20)Over 100 years old, but aged for a significant period in demijohns.
A: Mid-amber
N: Dried stone fruit. Spice. Vanilla and toffee. Some hints of wood polish, but more gentle caramel and subtle rancio. Old but not aged
P: Brisk acidity. Caramel and roundedness, but not sweet. Chalky texture. Spice. Honey, caramel and rancio. Polished wood. Medium length

Day 2 am: Niepoort: Uniqueness of a wine that can be matured for 100 years – Port

The gates to Dirk’s hideout, Quinta de Nápoles (not to be confused with Pablo’s hideout, Hacienda Napoles)

Carlos Raposo hosted us for a tour of the Nápoles winery. Carlos had been winemaker and Dirk’s right-hand-man in the winery for 7 years, with this being his final week at Niepoort. The new winemaker, Luis joined us for the tasting, on his first day at work! Dirk also joined for the tasting, including giving a speech to thank Carlos publicly, and to welcome Luis. We then stayed for lunch, when again, Dirk opened some remarkable bottles, including two Garrafeira ports:

Garrafeiras are neither Vintage nor Colheita Tawny, but a vintage-dated category in their own right. The 1948 was aged for 4 years in pipes like a Tawny, then ‘bottled’ into 7L squat, dark glass demijohns and aged for 21 years in a manner not entirely unlike Vintage, yet different, until being ‘decanted’ into 75cl bottles in 1973. A further 45 years in bottle obviously added a 3rd dimension!

Niepoort began in 1842 as a negociant Port shipper. They have also been making wine since 1987, after buying Quinta da Nápoles. Dirk pushed to make table wines as well as Ports, so had his father buy Nápoles. They now have 5 estates. Dirk favours co-planted vineyards over block-planting as this has the track record of history.

The also have an excellent, large and excitable winery dog, Batuta:

Batuta: contender for Winery Dog of the Year

Initially, the Nápoles winery was cramped and run down. In 2007 a new winery was built into the hillside, permitting a gravity-fed model. 1m kg grapes are processed at the Nápoles winery to make table wines, white Port and some experimental red Ports. Across the company, 2.5m bottles are produced, of which 600,000 are Port (including 200,000 White Port).

At the roof, grapes are received and weighed, then sorted on a vibrating table. This feeds down to 6 auto-lagars – open, cylindrical, stainless steel tanks with an in-built auto-pigeage mechanism, for making Port wines. Quality reds are made in mainly stainless steel, closed, steeply conical vats. These compress the cap at the top, reducing skin to liquid ratio and slowing extraction. They also have some wooden vats.

Stainless steel temperature controlled regular vats are used for whites, alongside some barrel fermentation. Some whites go through MLF. Dirk imports François Frères barrels and has a close relationship with the cooper, so he mainly uses these, with some Taransaud and Radoux barrels, of varying ages and up to 500L. Reds are matured in barriques and also some larger, old casks of 1-3,000L.

They have also experimented with large, old amphorae, applying Georgian methods of burying them, filling them with whole bunches, both white and red, and leaving them for several months, sealed, to ferment and mature. Two vintages showed encouraging results, but the 3rd caused the amphorae to crack. They will be replaced and perhaps commercial wines made and released in future.

Amphorae buried alongside Quinta de Nápoles winery

For Ports, Dirk chills the fortifying spirit before fortifying, to avoid burnt or baked characters resulting from the thermochemical reaction caused by mixing, which can over-heat the part-fermented must. Likewise, they fortify at the same time as removing the must from the lagar, with very slow additions, to ensure even mixing and no ‘hot spots’.

Wines are tasted, selected and classed into each label after maturation, at blending / bottling, rather than pre-selecting for Redoma, Batuta etc either at harvest or during fermentation.

To be able to monitor fermentation and maturation closely, they have an in house testing lab, which also covers QC activities. Most required testing is done there, including biological testing, apart from some advanced analyses requiring large and expensive equipment.

Dirk believes Port is finer than fortifieds from other areas that he has made wine in, and believes the Douro is special. Baixo Corgo is the most important area due to its production size – the train arrived there first – with Régua surrounded by the largest vineyard area.

In commercial terms, he thinks Port houses are still working too hard to sell basic Ports to supermarkets and to compete on price. Dirk believes a higher proportion of red and white table wines, with less, but better Port will position the fortified wine more powerfully and distinctively – let the top-end LBVs, Vintage, Tawny and Colheitas show the fine class and finesse of the region, and step away from the coarse, fiery entry-level wines.

He feels too much effort was put into democratising Port and making it easier to appreciate, particularly to increase the appeal of Vintage Port to the US market. But its potential is for long-lived, more complex and challenging wines, which should be retained and celebrated – ‘be a bit snobbish about it’.

Given Niepoort’s historic pioneering of the Colheita vintage-dated Tawny category, he is also happy to see these now growing well, driven by the marketing power of Taylor and Symington, even if these houses tried to crush the category some years ago.

Adding specialist, wine-lover tourism growth to all of these directions, and he has a lot of faith that the region will be well-placed to make its distinctiveness known and he has a lot of optimism for it commercially.

Part of this is showing that there are other foods for Port than cheese – such as very young Vintage Port with pepper steak. He is also a big fan of White Port.

Quinta do Vale Meão Vintage Port 2015 (17 / 20)Douro Superior fruit. 19.5% ABV. Dirk believes this is the best Vintage that Vale Meão have ever made, as the estate is returning a little to Port, since the best Port grapes are not as good for unfortified wines. The acidity needed to make good red wines is not so necessary in Port, whereas flavour concentrated is. Dirk believes 2015 should have been a classic Vintage. A hot year, but not too hot or overripe. Meão tend to be fruitier and less firmly structured.
A: Deep purple
N: Blackberry. Some scent. Slate mineral. Cool sense.
P: Rich black fruit. Juicy. Pepper spice. Moderate length, but well balanced

Niepoort Coche Douro Branco 2016 (17+ / 20)Barrel fermented in 225L and 500L 40% new French oak, then MLF and ageing on full lees for 1 year. Racked after one year and bottled without filtration. Order from Macau high end casino for 3,000 bottle, limited-edition wine. Made this and it was rejected as too acidic and not oaky enough. Made anyway. Now sells all 2,000L on allocation before it is bottled.
A: Pale gold
N: Ripe lemon, melon and nutty vanilla. Chalky-stony minerality.
P: Chalky, mid-density, lemon. Some nut. Not giving a huge amount on the palate yet. Some stony minerality. Medium-long initially. Delicate and elegant. Builds through the finish. Brisk acidity

At 67 Pall Mall, I met Tomás Roquette, son of Jorge, the owner of Crasto (and Douro Boy), who explained that the estate had been in the family for over 100 years, but in fact pre-dates the demarcation of the Douro region in 1761, reaching back to at least 1615. Up to 1994, the wines were Ports, marketed under the Constantino’s brand.

After 1994, the Quinta do Crasto brand was adopted to lead the switch to table wines. That began with just 20,000 bottles of red, but they now produce 1.3m, including red, white and Port wines. Crasto export to 50 countries, with Brazil the biggest market, due to historic family connections, followed by the US, Canada and UK.

At the estate it was Manuel Lobo, head winemaker at the Quinta, who hosted us alongside Rita Magalhães Camelo, their European Export Manager. Our visit began with an entertaining truck tour of the vertiginous vineyards in an old, sturdy Bedford flatbed truck, followed by the masterclass tasting on freshness, and finally dinner.

Taking a truck trip up the Quinta do Crasto estate

At dinner, heavy rain set in, causing a power cut. More seriously, further down the road in Pinhão the storm was far more intense, causing flash flooding that blocked roads and some heavy hail. The following day we heard that crop-loss to top estate, Quinta do Noval, was believed to be 70%.

Re-engineering a patamares terraced vineyard to reduce water erosion

This deluge brought into focus the work that they are doing at Crasto, to re-engineer some terracing at the same time as replanting. With laser guiding to ensure a backward sloping angle on the terrace up to 3%, coupled with side-angle sloping, this should slow rainfall run-off and reduce erosion on this steeper slope.

Further, having previously planted 2 rows per terrace, they believe this was a mistake, because the back row, nearest the terrace face interfered with planting and managing grasses. With 1 row, they will be able to plant grass to reduce erosion further. Finally, they are also digging and turning the stone-soil up to 1.5m of depth and digging in neutral fertiliser, to ‘make’ soil.

Vertical planting of new white grape vineyards near the top of Crasto

At the top, up to 630m altitude, white varieties have been planted over the last 3 years, to expand white production. Flatter, these are planted using vinho ao alto vertical row planting, permitting mechanisation of many processes. Rabigato, Gouveio, Viosinho and others have been planted. Nitrogen-fixing cover crops, including clovers, have been planted as soil is essentially non-existent.

Overall, viticulture is relatively easy from the perspective of pests and disease, with 3-4 treatments per year. 2018 is showing a little more early-season pressure due to humidity.

By the winery are the oldest plots. At 120-180m is the Vinha Maria Teresa vineyard (pictured at the start of this post), planted 109 years ago. This is a 4.2Ha, 29,000-plant field blend. As plants were naturally dying and needed replacing, they wanted to retain as much genetic heritage as possible, so studied each plant.

This meant first a visual, ampelographic review of each plant, followed by more in-depth, isolation of each plant, tagging its GPS position and ensuring a sample was taken from that plant’s canes for DNA analysis to identify each vine variety. Subsequently, they have taken cuttings from the unique varieties and planted onto rootstocks in a separate nursery vineyard, to retain the genetic material and provide for replanting later. 49 varieties were identified across the 29,000 plants.

Their new, very smartly appointed barrel cellar includes an extensive barrel-rotation frame system. Unintentionally, but conveniently, this helped with white wine lees stirring, by rotating each barrels 4 times. That meant that bung-opening to stir wasn’t necessary, reducing oxygen contact and in turn yielding both better freshness and lower sulfite requirements at bottling.

For Manuel, achieving freshness in the Douro can be delivered through natural acidity, which itself derives from higher altitudes to reduce growing season temperatures, North-facing aspects to cut Sun hours and temperature, and also varietal selection, with Rabigato and Arinto particularly being higher acidity white varieties, whereas Touriga Nacional and Sousão, amongst others can bring acidity to reds.

Quinta do Crasto Tinta Roriz 2009 (16.5 / 20)2009 was the 100th anniversary of the family’s ownership of the estate. Mixed, 30-40 year old vines in the main. Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz from 3 plots are selected to produce single variety wines in top years. 100% Tinta Roriz, aged for 16 months in French oak and if the wines are good enough, bottle separately.
A: Deep ruby
N: Integrated, creamy vanilla. Rich, deep, slightly baked blackberry and black cherry. Cedar oak tones. Some crushed rock. Some floral aromatic tones
P: Sweet red and black cherry. Sweet oak. Ripe fruit. Some flintiness. Moderate, fine tannins. Creamy. Integrated c. 14% ABV. Medium-long to long

Day 3 am, part 1: Quinta Vale D. Maria: White wines as rising stars

The venerable Maria, winery dog of Vale D. Maria

After being met by Maria, doyenne of winery dogs Maria, Francisca van Zeller, daughter and winemaker, gave us a tour of the winery. We were then joined by Cristian van Zeller, her father and the founder / MD of the Quinta, for two back-to-back masterclasses. They were also accompanied for the masterclasses by Francisco Ferreira, owner-winemaker at Quinta do Vallado.

The Van Zeler family were originally in the Port shipping trade. Francisca’s mother’s side of the family owned Quinta do Noval. In the 1990s they began to focus on Douro DOC table wines, so switched estate production from supplying Port shippers to their own DOC wines.

The main part of the original 10Ha of Quinta Vale Dona Maria, running down to the Rio Torto

Cristian bought Quinta Vale Dona Maria, in the renowned Rio Torto sub-zone of the Cima Corgo, from his wife’s family in 1996. Then the estate was 10Ha, with 41 varieties but has now expanded to 45Ha. In 2017, they merged with major Vinho Verde producer, Aveleda, gaining substantial Douro Superior estates in the process.

Originally they bottled in a Bordeaux bottle, reflecting their estate nature, but now use a Burgundy shape as they look to represent the vineyard, rather than blends that may be varied to represent the estate – reflecting the vineyard-specific philosophy of Burgundy.

The began making single plot wines with Vinha do Rio, a 1.8Ha, 29 variety plot with 49% Tinta Barroca. CV-Curriculum Vitae was added, coming from a 3.3Ha, 25-30 variety, North-bank, North-facing plot, bought in 2003 and vinified separately. Their white, high altitude single vineyard, Vinha Martím, is named after the location of its nearby village in Douro Superior, adopting the Burgundian village-labelling model.

As they have understood the old method of co-planted vineyards amongst their old plots, their new plantings are reverting to the co-plantation model. Having been planting at 3-5,000 plants / Ha with single varities per row, and different varieties at different altitudes – as in the Vinha Francisca vineyard, planted in 2004 – they are now reverting to traditional, high-density planting at c. 7,000 plants / Ha, with multiple varieties they believe make the best Ports. They have just planted a new vineyard in that way, with 16 varieties randomly planted in each row, choosing varieties that should co-ferment well.

At the Quinta, they process 150t of red grapes, yielding 50-60,000L of wine across reds and Ports.

100% lagar fermentations are favoured both for top Ports and single vineyard red wines. They start with Rio as the earliest-maturing (warm, plus high proportion of Tinta Barroca) vineyard. That is followed into lagares by Ports, and if possible, they finish with VVV red wines (otherwise fermenting these in conventional stainless steel tanks). They intend to expand lagar capacity in the next 1-2 years, and completely replace their tanks, to give enough capacity for lagar-fermentation of all their red wines.

Francisca gives scale to the 5 tonne lagares. Cooling vanes can be seen along each wall

5t-capacity granite lagares are used. They destem, then foot tread, then add stems back as this makes the initial crushing more efficient. Temperature control vanes are used but mainly to cool the must initially, to 18°C for 2 days of cool soaking. Fermentation follows, with control being used only to avoid occasional big temperature peaks, with higher temperatures extracting tannins better.

They tested Touriga Franca from the same plots, picked the same day, but fermented in lagares vs stainless steel tanks. Universally, critics brought in to test them have consistently preferred the lagar-ferment results, which are less fruity, but more complex.

All whites made at Quinta Vale D. Maria are barrel fermented. However, Douro Superior fruit for their entry-level Rufo base white wine is mostly stainless steel tank-fermented. This followed the Avaleda merger, where substantial Superior estates came along with a large scale winery for entry-level production. At the Quinta, whites are pneumatically pressed gently into barrel, using only the lightest juice. They monitor pH every few minutes until it starts to rise, then switch the rest of the crushed grapes to White Port production. That means that only c. 28% of the original bunch-weight ends up in the white wines. As a bit of a joke (and so labelled) they did make a little white wine from the must subsequently drawn off from White Port lagares, before fortification, just to see what kind of ‘semi-skin-contact’ wine they would end up with. We preceded the main tasting with a sample of that!

At the time of our visit, Cristiano was preparing to create a final blend and bottling of their 2016 Vintage Port, as well as the estate white wines.

According to Francisco Ferreira, white winemaking is changing significantly – due to more acidic varieties, higher and cooler sites for better acidity, earlier-picking in early to mid-August, and more accurate, lighter styles of winemaking. Winemaking has adapted more accurately to each variety, and they now have better knowledge of how to use barrels and for which varieties. For example, at Vallado Malvasia Fina and Códega do Larinho were originally planted, but didn’t work well at Vallado as neither had enough acidity and oxidised too quickly, so they field-grafted across to Arinto, Gouveio and Rabigato. They also moved from 225L to 500L barrels, and a much lower percentage of new oak.

Quinta do Vallado original quinta building with its characteristic ochre-yellow iron-painted walls

The view across from the Quinta was interesting, as it showed almost in a single frame the nature of Douro polyculture: stone terraced, patamares terraced and vertical planted vines, with interposed olive trees: